In the past, it has been a common practice to form either a web or a sheet of labels which can be printed as a group and then individually removed for use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,219 to H. R. Baantmans discloses such a web of labels which includes a web of carrier material with self-adhesive labels paced-apart thereon. Sheets of adhesive labels are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,851 to Y. Sasaki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,189 to P. A. Vay et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,720 to J. B. Mack.
Prior label web or sheet structures have commonly employed a carrier sheet upon which a group of labels are adhesively but removably mounted, and such labels are designed for individual removal from the carrier sheet.
In the fiber industry, as thread is formed, it is wound on cylinders or bobbins called pirns, each of which is provided at the end with a plastic holder to receive a removable pirn marker. This pirn marker is conventionally a doughnut-shaped circular cardboard piece which is retained in the plastic holder by friction, and which travels with the pirn until the thread is removed. The pirn marker is printed to identify the thread, the date it was made and the machine and station it came from. Once the thread is removed from the pirn, the pirn marker is removed and the pirn is then ready for reuse.
Unlike conventional labels, pirn markers have no adhesive and thus cannot be supported by a separate carrier sheet. Instead, they are formed from a sheet of cardboard which is relatively stiff so that the resulting marker is of sufficient stiffness to be retained by friction in the plastic holder on the pirn.